For the 9th straight year, UCF Knights Football hit the field as the Citronauts in the Space Game — a shout out to the first logo the school had for its founding in 1963. The ‘Nauts hosted their fellow former American Athletic Conference member Houston Cougars in a Big 12 battle. Unfortunately for Nautnation, the first space game loss took place in the Acrisure Bounce House, 30-27.
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Special Teams: A+
They made their presence felt early in the return game with a 30-yard scamper from Antione Jackson in the middle of the 1st quarter to set up UCF’s first points of the game. Those points were posted with a 37-yard field goal to give UCF a 3-0 lead that lasted through the end of the first quarter. Before the evening ended, Ruellas would connect from 54 yards as well — his third field goal from 50+ yards on the season (a first in program history) while tying his personal best.
In the second quarter, they recovered a muffed punt with a heads-up play by Jalen McDonald that then set up UCF’s first offensive score of the game. Venneri’s night punting would finish with him averaging 40.3 yards per kick with one inside the 20 (mostly because he was often punting from UCF’s side of the field).
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Defense: A
In the 1st quarter, defense on money downs was big. Derrick LeBlanc with a 4th-down batted pass on the line ended the Cougars’ first drive of the game. That was followed up at the end of the first quarter with Phillip Dunham starting a historic evening picking off Houston quarterback Connor Weigman. (Both as plays the offense failed to turn into points.)
Then Dunham did it again, taking it 43 yards to the house to help propel UCF to a 24-17 halftime lead.
That’s not to say the first-half defense was flawless. They gave up a 64-yard touchdown bomb and let the Cougars sneak in a 40-yard field goal before halftime.
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After the Cougars’ score tied the game at 24, Dunham snagged another interception to set up the Nauts for the long Ruellas field goal to make it 27-24. Dunham is the first UCF player in school history with three interceptions a game.
The defense managed to get the ball back to the offense, holding Houston to a field goal, where they had a shot to win the game in the end as they did against Jacksonville State in the season opener. And that was despite losing mainstay players such as Braeden Marshall, Nyjalik Kelly, and Malachi Lawrence to injury.
Offense: D+
The Citronauts’ failure to launch with the football in the first quarter was disappointing with the defense’s stellar effort and continued so throughout most of the contest. However, they finally flipped a turnover into points in the second quarter — only for it to be all for “naut” when quarterback Tayven Jackson threw a pick six for Houston to take the lead 14-10.
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Jackson finished his night with 15 completed passes in 29 attempts for 136 yards and the interception. Six of those went to tight end Dylan Wade for 80 receiving yards.
The offense had a short memory as they drove back down the field for the second lead change of the game. Jalen Nixon took the direct snap in the wildcat formation where he sprinted 15 yards to pay dirt.
Nixon finished with 11 carries for 62 yards. Nixon’s increased load came at the expense of Myles Montgomery who left the game with a shoulder injury, but not before he put six on the board with 23 yards on six carries.
The elephant in the room is head coach Scott Frost’s decision to come in during UCF’s last drive. While Nautnation may be perplexed by the decision, Jackson’s injured hamstring is the reason given for the move.
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In postgame interviews, Frost cited that backup Davi Belfort’s ability to run would help him escape since he expected Houston to blitz. That turned out to be completely true as Belfort led the Knights down the field with runs that neutralized two of the Nauts’ nine total penalties on the evening to get his squad to the Houston 27-yard line.
Unfortunately, coach Frost’s aggressive nature got the best of him in the eyes of many Naut fans. UCF called a pass play where Belfort took a shot at the endzone to Duane Thomas that was intercepted by Houston to end the game.
While Thomas was open, the pass thrown was either mistimed or poorly thrown and ended up in the claws of a Cougar defender.
UCF will have to beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the final home game and pull a major upset on the road against the Texas Tech Red Raiders or BYU Cougars to have a shot at a six-win for a bowl berth.
